Godard famously said 'Every edit is a lie'. I totally agree. Every cut is a lie. Every shot is stolen. All stories are told. I am a nasty thief. This is a film student's diary.

Sunday, 14 August 2016

The Watermark Scandal: Independence Day Special Bulletin from SRFTI

Hi everyone. Please take a
look at this notice which was displayed in the Department of Editing, Satyajit
Ray Film and Television Institute till i took it off to click a picture of it.
Whatever is displayed on boards should be displayed before public too.

The Watermark Scandal Exhibit A: Order signed by Mr Debashish Ghoshal, Dean in Charge, with instruction to be circulated in all departments.

This time i am trying to
approach the problem with a calm mind so that i can save some energy for
creative purposes like making films, writing etc. Satyajit Ray Film and
Television Institute is a film school and all of us here are people who
enrolled to learn cinema, lest we forget.

The Problem.

Like the notice says, a
student shall be provided with just one copy of their film. Whichever project
it is. I, for example, just finished the principal photography of my diploma
project. So suppose after edit and sound and colour correction, i go to get a
copy of my film. [The reason why i am calling it 'my' film and not 'our' film
is here in this Facebook post. Things change here in SRFTI.] Then
somebody from the Editing department will give me a copy of my film with a
watermark on it. That is the ONLY copy of the film that i, the director
will have. For the rest of my life. Apart from violating my right to the my own
body of work let me also show you how ugly the thing looks. Below is a frame
from my Playback project called 'When Father Came'. The only copy of the film i
have with me.

Exhibit B: A frame from my playback project titled 'When Father Came'. On the top left and right you can see 'SRFTI' and 'Only for Preview' watermarked. This is the only copy i have of the film.

Implications

1. Firstly, the rule treats
students like shit. The process of making a film, small or big, starts with an
idea. From there to give it a body and shape and to do everything it takes to
make it take the form of cinema is done by students. Yes, there are technicians
who help us through this. Like light people, people who manage equipment, those
who help with location permissions etc. In any case SRFTI/the Govt. of
India/any of the professors do not have claim to even one frame of any of the
student work. So then in the end when there is a watermark called 'student
copy', or watermark of the ugly logo of SRFTI, or simply SRFTI watermarked on
the frame it is a violation of our rights to our work of art.

2.Suppose i am sending my film
to a film festival. For students of cinema especially those who are aspiring
directors, film festivals are the biggest opportunities to showcase their work.
Take any film festival, like IDSFFK. Now even in this stage there are problems
in SRFTI which i think should be viewed as a corollary to the Watermark
Scandal. That is the Selection Committee Scandal.

The Selection Committee
Scandal

Till the previous AC[Academic
Council] meeting, the 'selection committee' in SRFTI was a farcical one. First
it had people who knew nothing about cinema in it. For example,

The FRO [Film Research
Officer], Mr Sougatha Bhattacharyya. Do you know that this man made a
'documentary' and sent it to festivals where he was supposed to send student films?
The film is horsecrap and that is what makes it worse. Some employee drawing
salary from a government job decides that his own film which is horsecrap can
be placed over student films and be sent to festivals. Yes, he has every right
to do that but not without first doing his job of informing students about
festivals.Not by stealing these students' opportunities.

Vaibhav Hiwase, final year
student of Direction says ‘About one and half year back, I sent my short film 'Gavhankur' to Clermont-Ferrand film festival, which is one of the most
important short film festivals in the world. As per my knowledge this festival
is a great platform for the experimental film. My film falls into same category
so I sent it there on my own, as institute (FRO) never communicated with
me regarding this fest. Few days later, on d fest website I see three films:
mine, venkat's diploma film (8th batch) and FRO'S film (a documentary)! To my
surprise, FRO never informed me about the festival, but he sent his own film
for d fest. I don't have any problem in him sending his own film to fest, it's
his right, but my point here is, he is treating students as his potential
competitors and hence he is not informing them about the festival, that is
extremely corrupt behaviour from his side, he being FRO, institute has given
him responsibility to handle film fest submissions, he is not keeping any
transparency in it.’

What's more. SRFTI encourages
the same man to make more films.

For example every year a batch
of students come to SRFTI from BNA [Bhartendu Natya Akademi], Lucknow. Based on
the number of students who arrive, SRFTI collaborates with them and make two or
three short films. When i was in first year some senior students were asked to
direct these projects. Last year too, a junior of mine directed one such
project. It turned out to be better than most faculty directed films and even
films for BNA earlier directed by ex students. Now, by the look of it, FRO and
faculty are directing those films, again denying students an opportunity to
practise their craft. Let us not even consider the quality of films. My
understanding of cinema might be different from yours. What i find horseshit
could be a masterpiece for you. Even in such a scenario, whenever filmmaking
opportunities arise within the institute it is my opinion that students should
be allowed to make their (good/bad) films and not faculty their own (good/bad)
films. This nasty tradition of looking at students as one’s opponent is a
tradition in SRFTI and it is quite saddening.

That’s just one member of the
selection committee we are talking about. Others are faculty. And it’s no
secret that faculty have their favourites. I, for example, am nobody’s
favourite. So when this selection committee sits to evaluate which films will
be sent to IDSFFK, professor A might have had a problem because i am one of the
girls who complained against his co-worker who had sexually harassed me. Prof.
B might be somebody who said that SRFTI had made a mistake by selecting me. [Yes, a professor said this to me and i had made a complaint in my first year] Prof. C, for all you know, could be somebody whom i had questioned on the very
issue of film selection.

Till last week when the AC [Academic
Council] meeting happened, this was the situation of the selection committee.
Due to the demands of students like us, they have agreed to have an
all-external members-selection committee. When this will be implemented is
something to which nobody has an answer. So we can leave this corollary problem
over here.

Now back to the issue of
watermark.

Implications

2. Contd.

It is now clear how institute
has not, till today, sent ‘all’ films to any festival or even encouraged the
sending of films by students. If a student wins an award, then it’s a different
story. We students have always wondered, if there was no time limit given by
the festival as to how many hours/minutes of films can be sent by one institute
or organization, then what is the problem in sending all student work. Surely,
that is the most logical and egalitarian way of handling festival submissions?
We were told by the ex-director Mr Sanjaya Pattanayak, that SRFTI was not doing
it because it wanted to send films of a certain standard. For all those who
want to see a sample of this standard i invite you to SRFTI to watch films
directed by FRO, Mr Sougata Bhattacharyya. I don’t think anybody will have any
questions after that.

So now let us say that the old
committee or the new all-externals-committee decided that my film is not to be
sent to IDSFFK. I, as the director of the film feel that it should be sent.
Since this is a festival which doesn’t ask for an entry fee, i go ahead and
submit my film. Till this part it’s okay, for selection process i can send a
copy with a watermark, if you insist. Now the film gets selected [This
is, apart from an example, a true incident. Institute had decided not to send
my film Gruhapravesham and IDSFFK selected it last year.] Now what do i do?
What does any student do at this stage?

The student has to go to the
department of Editing and has to say that their film has got selected and request
for a copy of their own film without the [damn] watermark. Is the student going
to get it? No. The student’s ‘request’ will be processed and SRFTI will decide
if they need to send the film or not and if they decide to send it SRFTI will
send the film themselves.

As a result of this student will
not get to know if their projects have been sent on time or if they have been
sent at all.

Why are we so skeptical about
SRFTI? Because, as students, we know better than to trust SRFTI with anything
and particularly not with films. Since this is handled by the Department of
Editing i shall now explain why it is all the more dangerous.

1. The department of Editing
has a history with student projects. I am going to state instances where this
was made clear by the behaviour of editing students themselves. Please bear in
mind that i am mentioning only those incidents to which i have evidence and witnesses.
Those numerous stories of ex-students where they have been pushed against the
wall by this department has not been recorded and perhaps never will be unless
they speak up.

2. The student who was my
editor ‘accidentally’ lost a memory card of a day’s shoot. Later i got to know
from people who had been present there when he said that he had deliberately
thrown it away because he wanted to take ‘revenge’ on me for personal reasons.
I am fighting a court case against him now.

3. An editing student
accidentally deleted raw footage of one whole day of one of my classmates’
Diploma film. The director of the film confirmed that it was an accident which
again shows how irresponsibly work is handled by students of this department.
This is of course, not to say that all editing students function this way. The
problem is when this kind of unprofessional and irresponsible behaviour is not
stopped by the department. In fact by not taking action against these students
the department is encouraging such behaviour.

4. Debjani’s [Final year
student of Direction] short film was ‘missing’ from the department of Editing
for two months. ‘They [the department of Editing] first said it is lost. Then I
wrote a letter. After that they told me it is lost and I have to do sound sync
and subtitles again. But Guha sir [Debashish Guha, professor, Editing] taken
responsibility and found it,’ she said. They never gave her any explanation as
to how or why the film was ‘missing’ from the department.

I just stated some instances
to give a picture of how things are done over here. So as a student, when the
Editing department tells me that they will send my film to some festival i have
no reason to believe them and i won’t.

Implications

3. We saw what the
implications of watermark is in sending films to festivals. Now let’s forget
film festivals for some time. What about when we show our work to senior
directors/cinematographers as and when we get the opportunity? This is another
major way by which we find work after leaving film schools. Suppose i get an
opportunity to meet Haneke. [Never be stingy with your imagination when you
have the chance to use it] I’ll be like

Haneke: Yeah sure, i am very
busy making films but i’ll always have time for you, kunjila [told you,
imagination…]

‘Here it is sir’. *drool*

Haneke: ‘What is that ugly
thing on the top left of the frame?

‘Err...sir...it’s a logo’

Haneke: ‘What logo?’

‘Sir...it’s the logo of the
film institute where i studied’

Haneke: ‘What!- Are you
serious!’ I can’t watch a film with this thing on it! Why on earth is its logo
on your film?’

‘Sir...because sir...they said
they want to because they are the producer.’

*Thunderous, wonderful
laughter of Haneke*

‘Sir…?’

*Thunderous, wonderful
laughter of Haneke continues*

‘Sir, are you alright?’

Haneke: My dear child, don’t
they know that all films are produced by someone or the other. Are they really
that stupid to put their own logo on their work of art? *laughter continues*

Err...yes sir, they are, by
the look of it…*resumes drooling*

-the rest of this conversation
shall be printed as soon as it actually happens.

So this is the kind of
situation i am talking about. Why wouldn’t the director of the film have a copy
of the film like they made it? Without any logo or watercrap sorry, watermark?
Even though i am stating the obvious let me illustrate with examples so that i
feel good, generally.

I selected these two films for
specific reasons. Ray’s masterpiece because SRFTI is named after this legendary
filmmaker [Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, lest they forget] and personally, like
most of india, Pather Panchali is one of my favourite films too.

Gurvinder Singh’s film because
it was one of the latest films produced by NFDC and this body is also under the
same Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that SRFTI functions under.

In this context let us look at
how ridiculous these work of art would look if the respective producers, like
SRFTI had said that they wanted to have their logo watermarked on the films.
Then it would mean that the world would have watched those films like this.

4. At their leisure if a
director felt like watching their own film they would be watching it with the
watercrap on it which will make them feel like an idiot and leave them with no
desire for making anymore films. At least that’s what happens to me whenever i
see that seal of authority on my work.

What are the reasons SRFTI is
giving for this regressive practice?

1. Some student director from
an earlier batch along with his cinematographer re-edited his film and did not
give credits to the editing student. The department doesn’t want this to happen
again.

Shattering the warped logic
easily: If a student decides to behave unprofessionally or unethically that
student should face the consequences of it. There are many disciplinary actions
that can be taken in such a situation. Did SRFTI do that? A boy from Bihar
called me ‘behen ke laudi.’ Is the solution for this to ban all people from
Bihar in SRFTI? Or better still, since i have not once stopped questioning
SRFTI from the day i entered it, would they ban all girls or all mallu girls in
SRFTI? That’s what is called stupid. Also a clear sign that people’s brains are
currently not in their skulls.

2. As the producer, SRFTI has
every right to do this.

This time, i am not taking the
trouble to shatter this argument. Gurvinder Singh, the maker of Anhe Ghore Da
Daan, a frame of which you saw earlier will dispel it for you. Like i said, the
mentioned film was produced by NFDC. Now listen to what he says. ‘Of course
it’s unheard of anyone dictating to put the producer's logo on any film. NFDC
has never asked for it. Logo is not a part of any film. It’s only for
publicity. Even DVDs don't carry it. Any mark on the film's print can only
be decided by the filmmaker. Only television carries a logo while a film is
telecast. Students should take SRFTI to court over this dictat.

[Emphasis in bold added by the writer]

But alas, people like Gurvinder Singh are not in the governing council of SRFTI. Even in the Academic Council, the dean of FTII[Film and Television Institute of India] is reported to have said that he would like to implement this rule in FTII as well. So yes, get ready, FTII.

3. Everybody does it

Wait, are we talking about masturbation here? No, SRFTI, nobody does it. No, not masturbation, everybody does that. Ha ha. Gotcha confused. So, believe it or not, nobody puts a logo on a film like that. Alright? And the last time somebody gave 'everybody does it' as a reason it was during Sati.

4. SRFTI should be informed before students send films to festivals so that in case they win a cash award SRFTI can claim the money as the producer. A watermark ensures this

Dear o dear SRFTI, please take all the money you need. All of us students know of all the corruption you people have been up to just to eat money. Please eat and shit money all you want. We are willing to give it in writing in stamp papers that if the award goes to the producer of the film, your share shall be given. That's what bonds are for. Watermarking the logo is not the solution.

I am ending this note by
showing you what this place is up to right now. Please see the picture below.
The campus is filled with these banners saying SRFTI is celebrating 70 years of
independence of the country. Really? What can hold more proof to the fact that
this place of learning knows nothing about the concept of freedom? On this
‘independence day’, SRFTI, i spit on you. [But will eat the sweets after spitting on you] On this independence day, you are
able to erect such a banner simply because you have chosen not to hear the
pellets and people of Kashmir, the Una dalits, the people of Bastar and your
own students right under your nose who are bellowing for their freedom to make
films.

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